“I said I want to take Tim to have his picture taken with Santa tomorrow… Do you want to go?” Darlene asked.

So I had heard correctly, but I honestly thought she was joking because it seemed ridiculous to have a picture taken of your dog with Santa. Anyway, I thought I’d play along with the joke and said, “Sure. And after that, maybe we can catch a good basket-weaving competition! What a great way to spend a Saturday, huh?”

The look on her face told me she hadn’t been joking.

So the next day we bundled her little dog in the car and drove up to the